Mega Man: Time Stops for no Man
by Forcemaster24
Summary: Lan and Megaman are trapped in an evil plot, as old as time. Somehow, they must manage to prevail while Lan examines his feelings for Maylu. But can they escape the sands of time? Chapter 7 is up. My first fanfic, so please R&R. Rated T to be safe.
1. The Beginning

This is my very first fiction. I have read many incredible ones on this site and I have finally decided to make my own. I hope that someone will read it and hopefully enjoy it!

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It was midnight on the homepage of the Undernet. A red navi was impatiently waiting there.

"Where are you? I'm not standing around here all day!" There was a great crack of lightning, and a gray navi walked out from behind the statue.

"Silence, Burnerman. I am here." Burnerman recoiled as if struck, but quickly recomposed himself.

"Who are you? My instructions were to answer only to Bowlman or Mistman." The gray navi grinned.

"I might be Bowlman," he said as he morphed into a tall, white navi. "I might be Mistman." At this he morphed into a purple, smokelike navi coming out of a lamp. Finally, he morphed into the startled navi in front of him. "I might even be you!"

"Aah! Copyman! I should have known!" Copyman laughed, turning small and blue.

"Who did you think I was, Spoutman? Blub blub blub…" Burnerman growled, sending fire spewing out of his head and arms.

"I'm not taking this from you! I am only talking to Bowlman or Mistman, you freak!" Copyman became a tall, robotic looking navi.

"Shhh… Shhh…You musssssst not loosssse your temper sssso eassssssily if you wantsssss to become an UnderNetNavi. Take thisssss messsssage data and bring it to Under 3. Give it to a navi called Cepheussssss. Then, you ssssshall get what you desssserve." He spoke in a strange, breathy voice, and every "s" sounded like steam out of a pipe.

"That's it?" asked Burnerman suspiciously, "There must be some kind of catch, a trick!" The morphing navi became Circusman.

"Do I really look like the kind of navi who would trick you? Ahoo, Ahoo, Ahoo!" Burnerman grimaced as he took the Word file and then pointed one of his weapons directly at Copyman.

"I'm warning you, kid. Anything goes wrong, _any_ little thing, and you will face my flames! I will make you wish that you were never programmed, you viral anomaly!" Completely unfazed, Copyman became Freezeman and caught the burner between two shards of ice.

"Now, now," reprimanded Copyman. "You don't want to tick off your future boss, do you?" Burnerman grumbled, and jacked out of the Homepage into the normal Undernet. Copyman reverted back to his normal form and chuckled. "So, so gullible."

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Burnerman reached Under 3. He felt a strange power, something he had never felt before. There was a huge throne floating in midair in the center of the area. And sitting on it was the strangest program he had ever seen. He seemed to be made up of a strange, green energy. He wore a cloak and a crown on his head. A sound rang out, but Burnerman wasn't exactly sure if the being was actually speaking.

_I am Cepheus. I am the one you seek. Bring the data to me NOW. _

"You aren't a navi, are you?" asked Burnerman, shaking.

_Perceptive. But I do not care. I will give you five seconds to hand it over._

"I don't trust you," Burnerman snarled. "You can take it from my deleted data stream!" He turned to run off, but was struck by a blast of energy so powerful he could do nothing but stand there, screaming as the energy entrapped him and began to slowly tear apart his programming with shocks. At Cepheus' unspoken command, the text file rose up from the screaming navi. He opened it, and read the contents.

_Ah, so I should send Horologium to… But not until the…And then he will… Heh heh heh. This is your best plan yet, my old friend…_After deleting the text file, he turned to Burnerman. "Shakespeare said not to kill the messenger," Cepheus' voice rang out loud and clear. It occurred to Burnerman that his speaking before had merely been his thoughts, so powerful that they became audible. "However, I'm afraid I never had the patience to read Shakespeare." And with that, he shattered a huge hole under Burnerman's feet. Burnerman yelled as he fell through the virtual floor, into the deep abysses of the Void, the uncharted area where the internet had not expanded to yet. Any file that fell into the Void could never be recovered by any means. Cepheus laughed cruelly, and then a large ship, the _Argo_, came to take him back to his planet, where he would wait for two hundred years before implementing the scheme. A MettaurΩ who had been inocently watching chuckled as he transformed into Copyman, knowing his boss would reward him for both delivering the message and disposing of Burnerman. And, in the real world, a certain brown-haired boy woke up, yawned, and grinned as the prospect of his 16th birthday dawned on him.

If he had known what momentous events would befall him that day, he would not have smiled. That is certain.


	2. Happy Birthday: Or not

Alright, first off, I'd like to thank Loverly Light for the supportive review. I've read some of your stories, and, while I never found the time to review them, thought they were very good:) And Goten is Awesome; I_ think _that you meant you liked it, although your review was very ambiguous. So, I guess I'll give you an ambiguous thank you… Anyway, I tried to make this chapter a lot longer. I've been told I write chapters too short. Enjoy!

**Chapter 2: Happy Birthday… Or Not**

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Lan yawned as he woke up. This was a highly anticipated day for him. Not only the obvious fact it was a Saturday and he had no school, but also the fact that it was his 16th birthday. He was having a huge party (that, incidentally, he would drive to _himself_) at the new Netdome, the most awesome place in Electopia. It was three floors, and shaped in a circle, with a ring around it. There was a state-of-the-art arcade, filled with all the latest, most hi-tech games. There was a huge food court filled with every snack imaginable. And of course, there was a huge Netbattle Arena in the center, built like the Roman Coliseums of old. The holographic projectors sent the navis into the real world, where their battles were played out in glorious 3-D. All of the guests he had invited had R.S.V.P.ed that they would be there. Nothing could go wrong!

Or so he thought. But even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. And this one would go more awry then Lan could have thought in his wildest dreams.

Lan showered, got dressed, and went downstairs for breakfast. To his surprise, both his mother _and_ his father were there.

"Dad! I thought you were overseas!" he exclaimed.

"I got back last night," his dad explained, "as a special surprise. It isn't every day; after all, that your son turns 16!"

"Good morning, Lan!" His mother brought a plate for each of them. "I made your favorite breakfast for today, chocolate chip pancakes with scrambled eggs and bacon, just the way your grandma used to make for you!" After happily devouring his breakfast, Lan addressed his dad.

"Could I borrow the car for today?" His dad smiled.

"No, you can not." Lan immediately protested, but his dad just kept smiling and pointed out the window. Lan looked outside and his jaw dropped.

"D-D-Dad, that's a Ferrari! A red one! How did you get the money to pay for that?"

"Actually, I didn't. We were working on a program to make a virtual car, and we needed a model. The Ferrari company gave this to us in exchange for a percentage of the sales. After we were done, we didn't know what to do with it, so…" Lan ran up and embraced his father.

"Dad, you're the best!" His dad drew out a data chip.

"That's not all. Here's one for Megaman, too. Before any other navi will have one. After all, technically, it's your birthday too…" He broke off. "I just wish you were here to celebrate it…"

"Don't worry, Dad," Megaman said sympathetically. "I may not really be there, but this is definitely the next best thing! And besides, if I wasn't a navi, our world would probably be in such chaos that birthdays would be the last thing on our minds." His father managed a smile.

"I guess you're right, Hub. This should be a happy occasion, and I'm just ruining it with my wishful thinking. Well, you should probably leave now, Lan. Have a great time at your party!" Lan thanked his dad again, and then grabbed his shoes and jacket and went outside to drive his incredible birthday present. As he was driving, he wondered what the others would say about his new car. Especially Maylu… If his plan worked, he would, after four years of having a crush on her, finally ask her out. He had been too much of a coward before, as well as being completely oblivious to the hints she gave him. If everything worked out as planned, this would be the best day of his life.

But as you all should know by now, this would definitely _not_ be the best day of his life. Not by a long shot.

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**MEANWHILE, 200 YEARS IN THE FUTURE**

(Okay, it's not meanwhile since it's not at the same time, but you get the idea.)

Geo sighed. This was so boring. His high school history class was on a field trip to a museum, and it was the most tedious thing he had ever experienced. The only plus side was that both Sonia and Luna were in his class, as well as his best friend Pat (who now had control of his MPD). Bud was there as well, but Zack had transferred to Napoleon's School for the Vertically Challenged three years back. He was considering finding a wavehole and ditching the class (preferably along with Sonia or Luna) when the alarms started blaring.

WARNING! WARNING! FM-IAN ALERT! HE IS WREAKING HAVOC IN THE MAIN COMPUTER! PLEASE EVACUATE THE MUSEUM IMMEDIATELY!

"You hear that, Omega? Time for some fun!" Omega-Xis grinned. Geo had changed so much since they first met. Once timid and unwilling to fight, he was now raring to kick some FM-ian ass.

"Wave Change! Geo Stelar: ON AIR!"

His cry was echoed by several other students:

"Wave Change! Sonia Strumm: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Bud Bison: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Luna Platz: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Pat Springs: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Claud Pincer: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Kenta Yagi: ON AIR!"

Seven people pulsed into the Wave World. Mega Man went up to a small, crablike FM-ian and another FM-ian shaped like a goat.

"Claud, Kenta, what are you two doing here?" Cancer Bubble grinned.

"We had a day off, so I thought we should follow you guys around!" Mega Man facepalmed (with the hand that didn't have a dog's head on it)

"For 8th graders, you can be surprisingly pesky. Well, come along if you must." The seven FM-ians walked up to the computer and pulsed in. A cold voice rang out.

"How good of you to join me. I didn't have to hunt all of you down. The crab kid and the goat are added bonuses." The two eighth graders steamed at this, but the voice carried on anyway. "Say good-bye to everything you know in this time." All of them were confused.

"What does he mean, this _time_?" wondered Geo out loud.

"I know that voice!" Omega chimed in. "That's Horologium, an FM-ian who controls time! He must be bluffing, though. He can speed, slow, and stop time, but the most he's ever been able to actually travel is a day, at max. Let's just find him and beat the crap outta him." At that moment, a swirling vortex enveloped them, spitting them through the time-space continuum, back to a certain point of time I'll bet you've already guessed…

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Lan arrived at the Netdome. Seeing a limousine pull away, he smiled. _That Chaud. He's earlier than the host!_ He walked in, and sure enough, Chaud was already in there, ordering a medium-rare steak. "Chaud, it's only 10:00. It's not even lunchtime yet!"

"Pressing business at IPC." Replied Chaud. "Haven't had breakfast yet, so it's just right for a brunchtime." He brought out a briefcase, and handed it to Lan. "I trust you'll find your present satisfactory." Lan opened it up, and there was IPC's newest model of PET inside, along with a pack of new, prototype battlechips.

"Wow! Thanks, Chaud. This thing is incredible! New ultra-slim look, hologram projector, digital interface… And these new battlechips look amazing! I'll have to try them out during our battles!" Chaud allowed himself a brief smile.

"Just don't use them against me. I already know much more about them than you do." A few more cars pulled into the driveway. Then more. And even more. It was as if everyone he ever met was there to congratulate him. Yai and Maylu came together in a limousine, and gave him a blank check ("I didn't know what to get you, so I just got you anything you want!) and a photo album from Maylu. It was full of tons of pictures from their childhood.

"Wow, thanks for this, Maylu. It reminds me of all the fun times we had together. And, maybe, we can have even more-" He was interrupted by Dex running in and crushing him in a bear hug. "Hey! How ya doing, Lan? I wouldn't miss this party for the world!"

"That's great, Dex," Lan said forcedly, inwardly cursing him for ruining his chance.

"What were you saying, Lan?" asked Maylu.

"Never mind."

The party went on for hours, with tons of food, games, and Netbattles. However, the party was abruptly stopped when a huge explosion sounded outside. A huge flash of green light crackled through the sky. Everything was deathly quiet for about 10 minutes before anyone had the courage to go check what had happened.

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Geo groaned as he rubbed his head. He pushed himself up, and flexed his muscles to make sure no bones were broken. Around him, the others did similar things.

"Where the hell are we?" Geo wondered. "I'm going to log on to the Pyxis Galactic Positioning System (P-GPS) and…" He trailed off as he realized his transer couldn't get any signals at all, and now could only do the most basic of tasks, like storing Omega.

"Don't bother, Geo," Omega said ruefully, "According to my calculations, we are somewhere in the twenty-second century. (A/N: I know the EXE games say twenty-first, but I don't think a computer controlled society will happen anytime in the near future. This places Star Force in the 24th century, if you're wondering.) The satellites haven't been made yet. You won't be able to connect." Just then, they spotted a bunch of people running towards them.

"Maybe they can help us," observed Luna.

"NO!" shouted Omega harshly. Everyone stared at him. "I mean," he amended hastily, "If we tell them we're from the future, they'll never believe us! They'll think we're crazy or something. We have to pretend that we come from this time. Call your transers PETs, okay? And don't reference anything past their time. Wait!" he snapped his fingers. "We don't look anything like navis! Upload your memory data of our wave changed forms. We won't have the same powers, but at least we'll look like navis." With a press of a button, Omega became Mega Man; Lyra, Lyra Note; Taurus, Taurus Fire; Ophiuca, Ophiuca Queen; Gemini, Gemini Spark; Capricorn, Capricorn Kung-Fu; and Cancer, Cancer Bubble. The 22nd century inhabitants drew level with them, and Geo gasped. He recognized them from the movie series: Mega Man Battle Network: Based on a True Story. There was Lan, Chaud, Dex, Maylu, Yai… Of course, they looked slightly different than the actors that had played them, but there was too much of a resemblance to discount it.

"Hey!" Lan shouted, "Who are you guys? And what was that flash of light in the sky?" Geo had to think quickly.

"We're from Netopia. We were in a plane when we were struck by lightning. Part of the plane came off, and the seven of us fell." The party guests gasped and began chattering amongst themselves at once. Chaud was unimpressed, however.

"So, you expect us to believe you fell from the cruising level of an airplane, yet not only did you survive, but apparently didn't break any bones or sustain injury of any kind?" Geo winced. He hadn't thought this out very well.

"Well, we, we, um…"

"We helped them!" chimed in Omega. "We had jacked into the planes computer to talk, and we ejected some parachutes to them. They were washed into the river by the rain!" Luckily, it was raining pretty hard. Chaud frowned.

"And you are?" Quickly, the seven thought of names for their "navis".

"I'm Geo Stelar. My navi is Megama-" (No, Geo!) interrupted Omega, (Lan's navi is Megaman, remember?) "_O_megaman!" Geo hastily amended. Lan smiled.

"Wow, that's a coincidence, my navi is-"

"Yeah. I know."

"I'm Sonia Strumm, and _my_ navi is named Melody," Sonia interrupted.

"I'm Bud Bison. My navi is uh, is… Um, Cowman!"

_Cowman?_ Thought Geo.

_Cowman?_ Thought Omega.

_I'M NOT A COW!!!!!_

"I'm Luna Platz, and this is Serpentia."

"Pat Springs. Doubleman."

"I'm Claud Pincer, and this is my navi Bubble-" he broke off, and remembered watching Mega Man Battle Network III. "I mean Clawman."

"I'm Kenta Yagi, and this is Goatman!" Lan and Company quickly made their own introductions, and they decided that since they had nowhere to stay, they would come home with them. Geo would stay with Lan, Sonia with Maylu, Luna with Yai, Pat with Chaud, Bud with Dex, and Claud with Tory. Kenta didn't have anywhere to go, but Higsby offered to temporarily adopt him.

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"I'm sure we'll all be great friends!" grinned Lan as they walked to the parking lot. Inside, however, he was seething. This was his perfect chance, and thanks to these guys, the day had been completely wasted. And now, with tagalongs at their houses, he would have no chance at getting time alone with Maylu. His train of thought was interrupted, however, when he saw a hundred Copybots in the parking lot.

"Be on your guard," warned Chaud, motioning everyone back. "Copybots were all destroyed in the Great Copybot War, and after the chaos that ensued from that, they were outlawed by international treaty. Their presence here can't mean anything good."

He was right, as always. Each Copybot became a Heel Navi, and they were quickly swamped by them.

"Quickly, everyone!" yelled Baryl. "Back to the Dome!" In the confusion, several people, knowing how best to help, slipped off.

"Wave Change! Geo Stelar: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Sonia Strumm: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Bud Bison: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Luna Platz: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Pat Springs: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Claud Pincer: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Kenta Yagi: ON AIR!"

The Wave-Changed kids ran out towards the army of Heel Navis.

"Hey, those guys…" Chaud had to duck as a laser blast shot towards him and he left his sentence unfinished. "Oh, who cares? Help us!"

"Gladly obliged," grinned Omegaman, as he charged his buster and fired rapidly at the navis. "Omega, can you use one of the Tribe Forces?"

"Geo, we left the Ooparts at home. And without the Satellites, our Star Forces won't work either. We're on our own." Geo grimaced as he loaded a couple Battle Cards.

"Fine. Battle Cards: Breaksabre! Freezeknuckle!" One arm turned into a sword, and the other became an icy fist. He dashed into the fray, dodging attacks and striking down navis.

"Taurus Tackle!" yelled "Cowman" as he plunged into the mass of navis. He blazed fire around him and didn't seem to care about all of the buster shots that were hitting him.

Gemini Spark-B grinned as he slashed through dozens of navis using his ElecSword with the skill of a master. Gemini Spark-W was more reserved, and only fought when his friends were in trouble.

Cancer Bubble and Capricorn Kung-Fu fought as a pair. Cancer would trap enemies with the Bubble Buster and then Capricorn would beat them up with his martial arts skills. One navi managed to break their defenses, and was shot down with a TEH LAZORZ!!!1!1 blast from Ophiuca. (Seriously, WTF? A snake with lasers?)

Finally, the battle ended, and the FM-ians returned to normal.

"You have a lot of explaining to do."

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"My Lord. The people you described… They have come. They destroyed a squadron of my troops with hardly any effort at all."

"Perfect. This means Cepheus will hold up his end of the bargain 200 years from now. You know what to do. Send the boy to test out **S.E.I.S.M.O.S.** And while you're at it, send Psyche in early. We need to ensure that they participate in order to fulfill the prophecy. Prepare the Treble Adapter. And whatever you do, remember: You must not be seen."

"As you command, Master. It will happen at once."

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As the new friends drove off in their cars, a lone figure watched from atop the Netdome.

"Soon, Stelar," he spoke in an eerie voice, "Soon what I will again have what you stole from me."

"Wave Change. Solo: On Air."

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Well? How did you like it? Kind of slow chapter, I thought, but I had to start the story somewhere. It will get much better, don't worry. One good thing, I got it out really fast! Man, I had no idea I could work so fast. Anyway, please, R&R! I really want to know how you like it. Was it long enough? Was it too long? Does it need more action? Please, tell me your opinions, or at least post to say you read it. :P I've also enabled anonymous reviewing, so, once more, please review!


	3. The Frozen Wasteland

Hi guys! I'm back with another chapter. I'm really scaring myself with how much I'm writing. Thanks again to Loverly Light for the great review. Goten is Awesome, yeah, that's what I thought. I was just making sure. Thanks again!

**Chapter 3: The Frozen Wasteland**

Lan yawned, and smiled. The sun was shining, and he felt great all around. Then he heard the sound of snoring and remembered the pest on the cot next to him.

"Wake up, Geo," Lan said exasperatedly. "It's a wonder you haven't woken up the whole household by now." Geo yawned and woke up.

"I'll get the Cookingman card and make breakfast…" he mumbled. Lan gave him an odd look.

"What?" Geo started, fully awake now.

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" Continuing to look at Geo strangely, Lan walked down to the kitchen. Geo sighed. "Why can't we just tell the truth?"

"Because lying is fun! …Seriously, though, we can't let anyone know we're from the future."

"But why?"

"We just can't, alright?" Geo had a sneaking suspicion.

"You know something you aren't telling me, aren't you?" Omega sighed.

"Yes, I do. But no one else can know about it, especially not you. Even with me knowing it, we could all land in big trouble. They would realize instantly if anyone was in on the secret…" Although he had started off talking to Geo, he ended more talking to himself.

"Who would know?" Geo asked suspiciously. Omega started.

"No one, no one at all…"

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Maylu was really annoyed. Her parents were out (she sometimes wondered if they even remembered they had a daughter) and she had been overjoyed to have a friend to hang out with at her house. However, she had yelled, screamed, banged on her piano, and even got a voice changer to imitate Geo's voice (what she said… eh never mind) but Sonia slept on. She groaned. "For the record, you made me do this." She filled a bucket with ice from the freezer, and then put it in the sink for a couple minutes. She let it sit, and then threw it all over the cot.

…Nothing.

She sat there for about 20 seconds, just letting the fact sink in that a bucket of ice water couldn't wake her up. Maylu's dog Sally snuggled with her (dogs always know when something is wrong) and then barked suddenly.

"What was that?!?!?!!?" Sonia jumped out of bed with a jolt.

Sweatdrop

"… wait a minute, why am I all wet?"

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Dex and Bud were just snoring away…

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Yai yawned and got up. She called her butler to make her breakfast, and then blinked when she realized he was already there… Serving breakfast to Luna!

"HE'S MY BUTLER YOU LITTLE-"

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Chaud's alarm clock rang with the classic soldier salute, and he got out of bed instantly. By the time Pat, yawning, had pulled himself out of bed, Chaud was already almost done getting ready.

"Chaud," Pat said sleepily, "It's 4:00 on a Sunday morning. Why can't we sleep in?" Chaud didn't break stride while pulling his clothes on.

"To strengthen my endurance and willpower, I must train for three hours each morning before allowing myself to eat, drink, or take a leak," he recited quickly, as if he had explained this to a million people before (And he had). Pat raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't that a little extreme-"

"Do you need me to give me something to do?" interrupted Chaud.

"What? Well, I-"

"Can you or can't you entertain yourself?" Chaud snapped.

"Well, yeah, I can entertain-"

"Then kindly get the f out of my mansion."

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Eventually, everyone was awake and they had met in the park.

"So," Dex began, "What should we all do today?" Maylu groaned.

"I, for one, nominate finding where these guys are supposed to be so we can _get them out of our houses_!" Lan, Yai, and Chaud quickly assented. The arguments of the Star Force people were cut off as Dr. Hikari ran towards them.

"Guys! There's a Netbattle tournament coming soon!" Everyone looked blank.

"Umm, what was the point of running here all the way? We all have phones, this isn't the 2nd millennium, dad." His dad held up a bunch of tickets.

"Because I've got these tickets! There's one for each of you! Even your new friends-"

"THEY'RE NOT OUR FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Oooookay, acquaintances, then. Anyway, these will get you straight into the tournament! No need for any prelims!"

"That's awesome!" yelled Lan.

"That's awesome!" yelled Tory.

"Wait; didn't I just say that, Tory?" asked Lan. Tory sighed.

"Yes, but since I haven't had a speaking line this entire fanfic, I thought I'd remind the author I was alive." Lan frowned at this.

"Speaking of the author, we got those tickets just because the author was too lazy to make up prelims and wants to skip straight to the action, right dad?"

_He knows too much, better repair the fourth wall…_

"Well, guys," Tory continued, "I don't know about you but I'm going home to practice. Catch you later!" Along with Tory, Dex, Claud, Kenta, and Bud took their tickets and left. Dr. Hikari gave the remaining tickets to the others and left as well.

Lan looked at his watch. "Well, it's about lunchtime. Wanna go to the nearest burger joint?" Chaud gasped.

"Oh no! Lunchtime? I have to put in another hour of training before I can-" Lan dragged him into the car.

"Just train on the way there."

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Lan and the others had reached a McDonalds, Chaud had performed his hour of training by destroying everyone else's navis over and over again, and they were settling down to eat lunch. Chaud had told him and Maylu to find a table while they ordered. They found a good one, in the back, away from anyone else. Lan mustered his courage and decided to try again. He turned to Maylu, blushing furiously.

"Hey, Maylu, tonight, do you want to, umm, well, I mean…"

"Hey guys!" yelled Geo boisterously, "We got the food!" Lan groaned, smashing his face into the table repeatedly.

"Lan!" exclaimed Maylu worriedly, "Why are you doing that?"

"Because it feels so good when it stops!" moaned Lan.

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Eventually, they finished lunch and went outside to get some fresh air after the huge meal. While doing so, they came across a very familiar face.

"Sean! Sean Obihiro! What are you doing here? We haven't seen you in years!"

_Damn, they've recognized me. I thought I could slip by them… Gotta talk to them… Maybe stall for time…_

"Take this!!" He yelled maniacally, throwing a grenade at them.

_All right, maybe that wasn't the plan, but it was effective._

He ran off, and Lan and Company picked themselves put of the rubble and followed close behind.

"I can't believe he just threw a freaking grenade at us!" said Lan, completely shocked. "I thought he made up for his crimes and was a model citizen now!" Chaud sighed.

"They just don't make model citizens like they used to…"

They chased him all the way to an abandoned radio tower on the outskirts of town. He jumped through the door and began running up the stairs. After climbing up hundreds of flights of stairs ("Good thing Dex isn't here," muttered Lan) they got to the top. Sean was up there.

Waiting.

"End of the line, Obihiro," Chaud commanded in an authoritive voice. "You are under arrest for assaulting an officer of the law, possessing illegal weaponry, and resisting arrest. Turn yourself in or we will be forced to use necessary violence." Sean laughed.

"I didn't lure you here to be arrested. I lured you here to show you… THIS!" At the very moment he uttered the last word, a huge beam of light shot out of the radio antenna.

"But that broke! It hasn't worked for sixty years!" Maylu exclaimed. "How did you repair it without anyone noticing? It would have taken tons of high-tech equipment!" Sean's grin grew wider.

"Yes, it would have… _If_ it were ever actually broken! My master knew that we'd need this for our plan, so, sixty years ago, he staged an accident to make it look as if it were broken!"

"Master?" asked Chaud skeptically. "Who are you working for? And how the hell would they have known enough about their plan to begin planning it sixty years ago?"

"My master has been planning for this scheme since the day he was born." Maylu shivered.

"I hate to break up this lovely conversation, but has anyone noticed that it is getting colder around here?" Suddenly, it began to snow.

"Snow in October?" yelled Yai. "You have a sick mind! I _hate_ winter! I just can't _stand_ it!" Chaud rolled his eyes.

"Yai, no one is going to like what he's doing. He's sent a beam into the ozone layer. It will cause an ice age all over the world. And _you_ are whining like a petulant child." He pulled out his PET. "However, honestly, I don't enjoy winter that much either. Prepare to be instantaneously destroyed. You have no chance against me, especially with Lan helping." Lan was affronted.

"I do more than just help! What are you saying?"

"Who cares?" interrupted Yai. "Let's stop this guy before it gets any colder!"

"Jack in! Megaman! Transmission!"

"Jack in! Protoman! Transmission!"

"Jack in! Roll! Transmission!"

"Jack in! Glyde! Transmission!"

The navis found their way into the center of the computer, where Freezeman was waiting for them.

"Sean," Lan pleaded, "Don't go through with this! You were my friend! You were a great kid! You made up for your crimes! Just STOP!" He ran towards Sean to reach out to him, but Sean pulled back with a yelp.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

_**S.E.I.S.M.O.S. **__activating… program on-line…_

As Lan reached out to Sean, he curled up into a ball, and an ice shield surrounded him, nearly knocking Lan's head off with a frozen spike.

"What the hell?" yelped Lan, jumping back.

"He must have crossfused!" Chaud reasoned. But the navis saw otherwise.

"Freezeman's still in here!" Megaman said, "And he's glowing with some sort of aura!" Suddenly, Freezeman shot into action. He jumped into the sky, flashing thousands of ice shards down at them. Protoman dashed in with his sword, but Freezeman jumped out of the way even faster than Protoman could move.

"How is he doing that?" yelled Yai, "We're all doomed against that kind of power!" Sean grinned evilly, his arm turning into an ice blaster.

"If I were you, I would pay more attention to me!" Everyone jumped out of the way as he shot a huge stream of ice at them.

"Well now, this is your big chance," Chaud addressed Geo sarcastically; "Let's see that 'substance projector' you were talking about. The one you claim allowed you to send your navis into the real world, remember?" Chaud smiled inside. Now he would see exactly what they were up against. He believed that they had stolen technology from a base and were going to take it back to Netopia for use against them.

"Umm," Geo started, "we'll just do it… Back in the stairwell! Yeah…" Before Chaud could say another word, Geo, Luna, Sonia, and Pat jumped into the stairwell and quickly began their transformations.

"Wave Change! Geo Stelar: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Sonia Strumm: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Luna Platz: ON AIR!"

"Wave Change! Pat Springs: ON AIR!"

The four kids burst out of the stairwell. The Gemini Sparks teamed together to shoot a huge bolt of lightning at Sean, but he deflected it with a beam from his ice cannon. Ophiuca Queen called an army of snakes, but the temperature was already too cold and they just crumpled up.

"You can't defeat me! No one can!" Tears were streaming down Sean's face. "I tried to be good, but the world was horrible! I had to go back to my aunt and uncle, and they hated me. Hated me for running off with all the inheritance money. Hated me for depriving them of what they thought was theirs. Hated me just because I was my uncle's brother's son. They never liked each other, even as kids. And when my dad became rich and successful, and my uncle became some lowdown slum, they never talked to each other. If they weren't my only living relatives, I'd never have had to go to them. Then one day, a navi appeared on my computer screen. He told me if I worked for him, he would help me get even. I agreed immediately, and sure enough, the next day when I came home from school, the house had burned down and my uncle and aunt had perished. After that, he told me what to do and trained me to become even more powerful than before. The **S.E.I.S.M.O.S.** … the **S**uper **E**nergy **I**nvocation **S**ystem **M**ainly for **O**ppressive **S**ituations. It launches the two of us into Perfect Synchro. I am able to use Freezeman's powers, and he gets an incredible power boost from my human D.N.A., just like Megaman. There is no way to win."

And it certainly seemed that way. The navis were all bruised and tired, but Freezeman barely had a scratch on him.

"See? This is what happens when you don't train eight hours a day!"

As they pondered what to do, Lan's PET beeped.

"What is this? …Megaman! The Beast Out button is back! How could that-"

"Who cares?" interrupted Megaman. "Just press the damn thing already!"

As Lan pressed the button, Megaman's head was thrown back as incredible power coursed through his veins. His body was surrounded by a plume of magma as he was fused with the powers of this new beast. He grew taller, and his armor turned orange and grew spikes all over it. A fiery aura blazed around him.

_Beast Out: Salamandra. Use it well…_

"Beast Buster!" Flaming bullets blasted out, fast as lightning, from a Vulcan-like weapon. They connected with Freezeman, who was thrown back, startled.

"Wow!" yelled Lan, "Let's see what this baby can do! Firehit3! Slot in! Download!" The chip was powered up by the Beast Out and Megaman locked-on to Freezeman. He tried to block it with a wall of ice, but the Beast Out strengthened it so much it crashed through his defenses and connected.

"Now! End it! FireBurn 1! 2! 3! Slot in! Program Advance: WideBurn!" The fiery Program Advance, already strong, was taken to new heights. A huge inferno erupted out of Megaman's buster and incinerated Freezeman instantly. Happily, Lan ended the Beast Out and waited for the inevitable _Freezeman Deleted_. But it didn't come. Freezeman was glowing, and kept getting brighter and brighter until no one could look at him. Then, he jacked out… And entered Sean. Now Sean was glowing even brighter than Freezeman had.

"No! How… I… I couldn't lose… Lan… Lan, I'm sorry… Tell…"

And then he was gone. The tower ran down and slowly came to a stop. Everyone stood in silence. Geo and the others pulsed out and returned to the stairway. Lan took out a laser cutter and inscribed in the tower:

_At this site, Sean Obihiro repented his evil ways. He may be gone, but those who remember him are not. R.I.P._

Chaud rolled his eyes. "You are just so sappy and sentimental."

---------**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

"So… What is your report?"

"My Lord, the Obihiro boy tested out the **S.E.I.S.M.O.S.** today."

"And?"

"**S.E.I.S.M.O.S. **worked perfectly. He failed his task."

"All, then, is going according to the plan."

---------**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

_One has been taken, but fifteen remain_

_I see nothing ahead but more anguish and pain_

_When souls long tormented return to their spheres_

_The gate shatters open, Apocalypse nears_

_As the world's torn to shreds people begin to pray_

_That they'll live to see the one final day_

_So fight hard, young heroes, but remember your doom,_

_The blame for the death of the Earth lies on you_

_**So I have spoken, so it shall be**_

_**Don't waste any time, or time will waste thee**_

---------**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

So? How did you like the new chapter? Again, please, please review! On a side note, listening to music while trying to write really is bad for concentration. But who cares? It's more fun! -


	4. Disco Inferno

Yeah, I have to apologize. I was on vacation since last Wednesday, which is why there hasn't been an update in so long. I'm glad, though, that I have some new readers!

**To Loverly Light: **Thanks again! And as for Sean, maybe he is, maybe he isn't. You'll see why.

**To MegamanV2: **Have you played the Star Force games? All the characters from the future are from Star Force, and "Wave Change" is when they fuse with their alien counterparts.

**To Ri2:** Which time period?

Well, anyway, I'm back, and here's your chapter!

**Chapter Four: Disco Inferno**

Lan and Geo woke up, looked at the alarm clock, and groaned simultaneously. No matter what century you live in, everyone hates Mondays.

_I wish I hadn't been down at the lab all night, _thought Lan ruefully. He had ended up with a lot more questions than he had answers. He recalled the conversation…

**FLASHBACK**

"_Lan, what happened? You look pale."_

"_Dad, I would be surprised if I wasn't pale."_

_Lan recounted what had happened the previous day, sparing the fact that he had had a grenade thrown at him. That really wasn't the kind of thing you told your dad. His eyes got wider and wider, and he gripped Lan on the shoulders._

_"Did you say the__**S.E.I.S.M.O.S.**__? No way… I thought… Even he wouldn't be stupid enough to try… You say he just disappeared in a flash of white light? And his navi went with him?"_

_"Yes," Lan replied, unable to see why his dad was so excited._

_"Well," he said, taking a deep breath. "He's not dead. But he's not much better off."_

_"What do you mean?" asked Lan, clearly alarmed._

_"… I can't tell you that. But know one thing. There are going to be more of them. If you fight another one, it is __**imperative**__ that you bring back their PET. I need to analyze this new system._

"_O-Okay, Dad."_

**END FLASHBACK**

He sighed. He sure hoped that Sean was okay.

"So, Geo," he asked. "Where are you going for school?"

"Oh, we transferred to your school, Elex High." Geo replied cheerfully. Lan groaned. Now he would probably have to show him around the school or something.

_At this rate, _he thought, _I'll never get more than two seconds alone with Maylu._

Luna smiled as she got ready for school. If it weren't for her, they would have never gotten into the school. She had gotten an expert hacker, and she had done it the easiest way. She had jacked in to a shady part of the internet (They had called it the Undernet, for some strange reason), held a lot of money beside her, and pretended to read a book. Then, when a punk navi inevitably attempted to pickpocket her, she grabbed onto him and threatened to rip his head off if he didn't tell her where the best hacker in town lived. He had quickly pointed her to a secure link out of the Undernet. After informing the owner of the link that she had some business for him, (and flashing a couple million zenny) he graciously let her in. The Homepage of the hacker was a paradise. It was built to resemble a huge beach, and had all the digital luxuries you could ask for. Luna could only assume that the hacker had made it himself. The hacker's navi met her inside and introduced his operator as Tech. He then paused, and Luna assumed that she was supposed to know who this "Tech" was.

"Obviously," he had said disdainfully, "You are new to the black market. Every high ranking official in the Undernet hires Tech when they need a job. He's a legend! Even the surface dwellers should know who he is! He's the most wanted hacker in the world!"

"Oh yeah, _that_ Tech!" she said, just to placate him. Then, a nerdy sounding voice rang out from overhead.

"Subject analyzed: Unknown girl, fused with the alien Ophiuca. Due to insufficient technology to perform that capability in present times, she is most likely from the future, transported against her will, or else she would have brought her own technology and wouldn't need me. Most likely requires false documents proving the story an idiot comrade told the people they met when they landed. And has no idea who I am! Jerk."

"H-H-H-How did you know that?"

"Being the most incredible hacker in the business gives me the ability to solve nearly any puzzle or problem given to me. Sherlock Holmes is an amateur compared to me. He didn't get cool gadgets… Or make millions. Which is why I let you into my house. So get cracking on the requests."

Faster than she could tell him what she wanted, he had printed her passports for all of them, created them a "computer past" in Netopia which would testify where they lived, the schools they went to, etc., gotten them places in Elex High, and had two coffee breaks. The whole thing took less than fifteen minutes… and ten minutes were for the coffee breaks. Dazed, Luna paid, and left, paying no attention to the smirk on Tech's navi's face, or the transmitter that had been placed on her.

Luna laughed as she went out the door of Yai's mansion. The best part was, she had put Geo with her in the accelerated program, while sending that lame excuse for a pop star, Sonia, with Bud in the "slow group". She had finally got one-up on that has-been! Laughing hysterically, she went on to school, still unaware that there was a transmitter inside her Transer.

Sonia bolted out of bed.

"I know that feeling! I just got one-upped by that selfish, rich little…"

"And now you wake up?"

Everyone was finally at school. Lan felt like getting down on his knees and shouting for joy when the job to show Geo around was given to some kid in the accelerated track. He felt like spontaneously combusting, however, when he heard that there was a huge pop quiz in history, science, and math. After the worst of the three, the science test, he burst out into his lunch break, gasping for relief.

"Oh, please," Chaud remonstrated, rolling his eyes. "The science test wasn't that hard."

"How would you know?" countered Lan. "You're a senior; you didn't even take our test."

"Yes, actually I did. The teacher paid me to _make_ the test."

"You have got to be kidding me…"

"I don't think it's fair," moaned Bud. "We haven't been here at all and we have to take these tests too!"

"We still have math after lunch," Maylu reminded everyone. "We should study to make sure that we get a good grade!"

"Who needs studying?" asked Dex, stuffing his face, "I'm eating fish! That's brain food!"

"Dex, Goldfish aren't real fish, you know. They're just shaped like fish."

"Uh-oh."

After they finished the brutal math test, the kids got a short free period until the others were done. Miraculously, Lan had managed to finish the test early. The only other person out in the hall was Maylu.

_And if at first you don't succeed… Better hurry, or we'll be rudely interrupted again…_

"Maylu… Couldyoupleasegoonadatewithme?"

"What?" Maylu asked, looking confused. "Could you say that a bit slower?"

"I said, could you please…"

"Attention Lan Hikari, please report to the principal's office immediately!"

…_I knew it._

Well, Lan wasn't in trouble. The principal just needed some help expulsing some viruses from the freshman building that had gotten lose during some moron's experiment. The principal gave him the rest of the day off of school to get rid of them. And of course, right when he left, evil took its opportunity to strike…

Maylu was thinking.

_That's three times, now, Lan tried to say something and was interrupted. Could he finally have really noticed me? Or is it just wishful thinking… I don't know. It's been six years since I've started liking him and still, nothing. Maybe, maybe I should try something different. I'm sixteen, after all. I just don't know…_

But her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden blare from the loudspeakers.

"Attention idiots! This is your resident pyromaniac and ladies man, Mr. Match!! I am now in complete control of this school. Girls, swoon in delight!"

"Who are you talking to, Match?" called Chaud, smirking. "I don't think your mother is here."

"What was that? Huh? What was that? I dare you to say that to my face, you little Official brat!" Chaud rolled his eyes.

"Oh, please. You never follow up on your empty threats. You are such a loser."

"A loser who's burning your school to ashes!" Chaud glanced out the window and saw half of the school was already a blazing inferno.

"Damn, that guy moves fast."

After calling for an evacuation, Chaud and the others ran to the principal's office, jacking into the computer.

"Let me guess, Match," asked Maylu. "Now you're about to pull out your PET, go all _**S.E.I.S.M.O.S. **__activating… program on-line…, _and try to blow us to bits.

_**S.E.I.S.M.O.S. **__activating… program on-line…_

"Called it."

Match grinned as he began shooting flames out at the kids.

"Not only does _**S.E.I.S.M.O.S.**_ let me shoot fire, it also gives me superior comeback lines. By the way, Chaud, at least I actually _have_ a mother!"

"**WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!**"

"Ooh, did I touch a nerve?" smirked Match, obviously enjoying himself. "Why don't you run home and cry to mommy, OH WAIT, you don't have one."

"**I'LL TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!!**" Chaud screamed as he launched at Match, only to get a blast of flame in the face.

"God, it was all worth it just for that." With Chaud unconscious, Protoman was running pretty much on autopilot, without any chips. He dashed around Flameman, slashing with his sword, but Flameman stopped him whenever he got close. Geo, Luna, Sonia, Bud, and Pat had wavechanged and were fighting Match close up. He fired both of his flame cannons at them, blasting the principal's room into smithereens.

_The principal won't like this…_ thought Luna as she was caught by a super-effective fire blast and crossed out. Flameman had already deleted Roll and was concentrating on getting rid of Gutsman.

"He's trying to pick off our weakest members first!" called Protoman. "Then he'll have us defenseless!"

"Guts-Guts! Gutsman not weak!" After saying this, he tripped and was deleted by a fire blast.

"Suuuure."

"There's no way we can beat this guy without Lan!" Yai wailed. She was almost out of rare chips. "Try this, Glyde! Meteor Red Sun! Blue Moon Ray! Program Advance: SunMoon!" The two satellites appeared above Glyde's head and began laying waste to the battlefield. Flameman was only taking a small amount of damage, however. Geo couldn't believe it. Even if they managed to beat him, they would be trapped on the third floor of a burning building. Not paying attention to his surroundings, he suddenly got hit on the head with a large piece of falling rubble. He blacked out instantly.

When Geo "awoke", he was in a black void, completely unfamiliar to him. He had no idea what was happening. Then, three familiar faces appeared.

"Pegasus! Leo! Draco! How did you guys get here?"

"Well," Pegasus said in his cold, wise voice, "Assumedly, you are the ones to whom we will give the Star Force, two hundred years from now."

"And," rumbled Leo, "The ones who will obtain the Ooparts and assume the power of the Tribe Forces."

"However," rasped Draco, "Neither of those will allow you to defeat the evil that is haunting the land."

"You mean that fiery dude back there?" asked Omega.

"Even worse than him will come for you soon," replied Pegasus, "So you must be ready."

"We will give you the power of the Star Knights," continued Leo.

"The who?"

"The Star Knights," reprimanded Draco. "They were immensely powerful warriors who started the three Tribes, back in Prehistoric times. They created the Ooparts, and were completely invincible to lesser mortals. Now, we shall lend you their power."

Pegasus stepped forward, and the Sword of Berserker appeared in front of him.

"The first of the Star Knights was Azrael, the head of the Berserker Tribe. He had a dual element: Aqua and Electric. That meant that his sword froze people, and then could shoot lightning blasts to do more damage. He could also fly." Pegasus touched the sword with his hoof. Icy blue lines went through the sword, it became bigger, and Pegasus' crest appeared on the hilt. Next, Leo came up, and the Saurian Skull appeared.

"The second Star Knight was Vöndr, the head of the Saurian Tribe. He fought in a huge suit of armor made of a dinosaur skeleton. He also had a giant mace which he enjoyed crushing people's skulls with, which is probably why he had a skull on the mace." He touched the skull with a paw, and it elongated into a huge mace, with Leo's crest on the handle. Finally, Draco came up and the Shuriken of Shinobi appeared.

"The final Star Knight was Kiselt. He was a ninja, and could disappear at will. He fought using shuriken. And that's about it. However, he had more powers than the other two. You just have to find out what he can do." And with that, he touched the shuriken with his head and his crest appeared on it. Geo took all three of the new weapons gratefully.

"And also, one more thing," continued Pegasus.

"We would like to give you these Legend Force cards," agreed Leo.

"Each one is an instant kill. But you can only use each once before it disappears forever," warned Draco.

Geo got: "InfiniteKick", "MachineSeed", "FlameBlast", "DarkRain", "BerzerkSlash", "JammerSmash", and "IceBreaker"! (These are my actual best combos. Lame names, I know, but the name doesn't matter when you 1-hit K.O. anything.)

_Now I'm ready to defeat Match._

When Geo returned to the real world, no time seemed to have passed. He quickly whipped out his sword and shouted:

"STAR KNIGHT: AZRAEL! TRANSFORM!" He was instantly infused with a sense of awesome power. All of the cards in his folder were ready for use instantly. He lunged in and struck Match with his sword, freezing him solid. Then, he flew up and shot an Elec-blast from his sword, hitting him again.

"This thing is incredible!" he yelled. He activated two cards with his mind: TidalEdge and StrikeEdge. The power of both swords was boosted and he charged them together.

"TRAINCOMBO!" he yelled as he slashed with both swords. As Match was dazed, he pulsed into the computer to finish Flameman off.

"Star Knight Big Bang: Magician's Sword!" First, a circle appeared around Flameman, freezing him instantly. Next, his sword became charged with a huge amount of electrical power. He zoomed in and slashed with the sword twice, bringing it down for a third hit with a huge explosion. The power he emitted was so strong that he was instantly shot out of wave form. When he had the strength to look up again, he saw that Match was going through the same thing that had happened to Sean. At that moment, he disappeared in a blinding flare of light.

The firemen managed to get everyone out safely, but the building was completely destroyed. The principal screamed as he came back with Lan from the freshmen building to see the school burnt to a crisp. Lan searched the rubble for Match's PET, but all he found was a twisted lump of circutry. How many more would waste their lives before he managed to recover a PET?

--

"So, Mercury. The second one has also failed in his task?"

"Yes, sire"

"Very good. _He_ will have no choice but to play his hand and release the Spirit Keys. And when he does, we'll be ready."

--

Yay! I finished. Just want to make things clear: Mercury is _not_ the Stardroid Mercury. Sunstar is _not_ the evil voice. And if anyone is wondering, Azrael is, IIRC, the angel of death. (Cause he can fly, you know?) Vöndr was a norse giant. Kiselt… I have no idea. It just popped into my head. For some reason, it makes me think elf. Maybe a name from Lord of the Rings I subconsciously remembered? The world may never know. So, yeah. Please read and review! Please?


	5. The Crystal Keys

W-W-What?! O-O-One review? I'VE BEEN ABANDONED!!111!!1

Yeah. I'm really sorry that this has taken so long. This is a lot harder than I thought. Part of the reason is that I've already got all the plot twists and battles planned out for later, but this whole setting up at the beginning is hard. The other thing is my hectic schedule. It should get better in a couple months when summer starts!

**Chapter 5: The Crystal Keys**

_The souls of the lost ones are not enough_

_So watch out, young heroes, this will start getting rough_

_Guarding these keys you must take as your job_

_For they're what someone shall soon try to rob_

_Should you lose in a battle, they will disappear_

_And disaster continues on its journey here_

_Because needed, they are, to unlock the gate_

_Full of sorrow, of anger, of torment and hate_

_Soon this plot most evil will be revealed to you_

_And you will know more than you wished that you knew_

_**So I have spoken, and so it shall be**_

_**Don't waste any time, or else time will waste thee**_

?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/

Lan woke up, gasping. He had just had an extremely weird dream.

"It sounded as if Dr. Seuss had gone emo…" he muttered. He went into the bathroom to splash water on his face, and yelled in surprise. A key was around his neck on a chain. Both the key and the chain were made of the same material, a beautiful, delicate crystal that caught the light and dispersed it into a rainbow of colors. It was surprisingly lightweight, and he couldn't even feel it on his neck. He tried to pull it off, but the chain wouldn't fit over his neck. He burst out of the bathroom to find Geo waiting outside with a similar predicament.

"What the hell are these things?" Geo asked.

"I dunno," replied Lan, "but I bet I know someone who does!"

?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/?/

The next morning, having nothing to do since the school had burned down; they went to Scilabs to ask Mr. Hikari about the strange keys.

"You know," said Geo on the train there, "I had a really weird dream before the key appeared. It was as if Dr. Seuss-"

"Wait! You too?" asked Lan, shocked.

Their shock did not end there. When they got to Scilab, there were several other people they were quite familiar with. Specifically, Chaud, Pat, Maylu, Yai, Luna, and Sonia. After a short discussion, it turned out that all of them had had the same dream, woke up, and found the keys around their necks. As soon as Dr. Hikari opened the door, they all barged in together.

"Dad!" started Lan, "These things appeared and we-"

"Whatever weirdo put this around my neck," interrupted Yai, "he got past my huge security system-"

"I'm scared!" whined Sonia. "It's so creepy how our personal privacy was just-"

"Shut up, and let the man talk so I can get back to my work," finished Chaud.

"Umm, thanks Chaud," answered the researcher. "Now, what exactly is the problem-" He cut off suddenly as he glanced at them and his eyes rested upon the keys.

"No… No way! That's impossible! They actually… No… NO!" He began to yell, pounding his fist into the computer. "I will stop them… To regain our honor…"

"Sir, what was that just all about?" asked Maylu worriedly. "Are we going to die or something?"

"Well, not directly because of those keys, but you might if you all aren't very careful," answered Dr. Hikari anxiously. "You have no idea what those things could do if they got into the wrong hands!"

"Cut the chatter!" ordered Chaud. "Tell us what it is without delay or face my unrelenting fists of fury!"

_O.O_

"Umm… Yeah…" Dr. Hikari muttered, trying to regain his train of thought. "Well, you see, it all started when I heard about Sean and Mr. Match using those _**S.E.I.S.O.S.**_ things. After that, it was only a matter of time until these keys showed up…"

"This is what happened, many years ago, before the internet was even fully made. You see, without proper limitations, programs kept going haywire, or maverick. Some of these prototype programs gained immense power and caused no end of destruction to the net while the founders kept attempting to rebuild it. However, one… One was different. This one program was more powerful than any other program in existence… And it wasn't made by any human. Somehow, impossibly, it created itself from nothingness. Not only that, but it created _other_ powerful programs from nothingness as well. And when it attempted to unite all of the mavericks on the internet into a giant army, the government back then knew they had to stop him.

"You see, this program was one of the only ones with actual intelligence. Most of the others stayed alone, without help, and just made random raids on humans when they felt like it. Thus, it wasn't too difficult to stave them off until they left of their own devices. However, they would have no chance against an organized fighting force of these programs. Thus, they decided to trick the superprogram into a closed off area, where it would be permanently sealed off, along with the other programs it had created, which were completely dependant upon him. All the top programmers of the time joined together to create an encryption level strong enough to hold him. Eventually, the trap worked, and the superprogram was sealed away.

"However, the sin of mortal pride lay upon these programmers. Instead of following the only smart course of action, which would have been to cut the trap off from the rest of the internet into permanent isolation within the Void; they decided to attempt a much bolder plan. They thought that they would eventually obtain the technology to control such a program and harness its powers for themselves. So they left the trap connected to the internet, and instead wrought a huge gate, which they locked with only a simple password. Needless to say, the superprogram broke loose after only a couple years of imprisonment, and was back to its old reign of terror in no time. It personally hunted down each of the scientists that had trapped it. And it seemed like nothing could stop it.

"But something did stop it. And when that something descended upon the superprogram, it sealed it once more within its prison. And the Higher Power created a large, impregnable gate to replace the old one. It is two hundred feet tall and 160 feet wide, with a turret every ten feet. According to the prophecy, the only way to reopen the gate is with the sacrifice of sixteen human souls, fused with the souls of their navis."

That was the first time he was interrupted, as Lan cried out.

"You mean that's what happened to Match and Sean? Their souls were fused with their navis… And _sacrificed_?!" Dr. Hikari sighed.

"That was exactly what I thought. For years that particular part of the prophecy was ignored and laughed at. Even if a navi and their operator died in Full Synchro, there was no way that could happen.

"But, just in case someone _did_ find a way, the prophecy states a second safeguard was placed. Once the prophecy was set into motion, sixteen keys would be given to the most powerful netbattlers on Earth. The only way to take these keys would be to defeat them in a Netbattle. And these keys, once in the keyholes, would unlock the gate."

"A very entertaining story," Chaud interrupted, obviously struggling to avoid rolling his eyes, "But what you've told us… It's nothing more than a fairy tale. What was this 'superprogram' you speak of? And this mysterious 'higher power'? And you don't actually believe that we'd think that there would be such thing as a prophecy, predicting all of this crap."

"Then…" Dr. Hikari muttered quietly, "I suppose you don't believe its description of you? _The child to herald the light_?"

"And what the hell does that mean?"

"'Born_ of flames to bear into flames, the great swordsman arises… And he will try to be the equal to the light, but it will outshine his fire…And his final fight lies in the land of the dead, but only to remain there forever…_' Something along those lines, anyway."

"Why I oughtta…" Chaud growled, drawing up to Dr. Hikari with his fist extended.

"Chaud! Calm down!" Lan shouted, surprised. _Chaud never loses his cool… What the hell was that all about?_

"As for your other questions, Chaud, the superprogram… His name…

Is Chronos."

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"Master Chaud? If you wouldn't mind me inquiring?"

"Can it, Protoman. I know what you're going to say." Dr. Hikari had continued to lecture the kids; how it was _'so important'_ that they keep the keys safe _'at all costs'_. He had walked out and was on the train back home now.

"That prophecy thing… The analogy was obvious." Protoman sighed. Maybe it was to the genius, but his humble navi was less astute.

"I'm afraid I don't understand, sir-"

"Light! Light! '_And he will try to be the equal to the light, but it will outshine his fire…' _It's obvious. Light is Hikari. It's saying that I'm not as good as Lan, plain and simple." Protoman blinked. Leave it to his master to decipher the cryptic prophecy scholars had pondered for decades, and then take it as a personal insult.

"You don't know that for sure-"

"Yes, of course I do. Who beat the LifeVirus? Who stopped Gospel? Who saved the world time and time again? It sure wasn't me."

"But you're much better than him. You've beaten him many times before…"

"But he's beaten me just as much. It's just not fair. We practice for hours and hours a day. We plan battle tactics, coordinate everything. We have pushed ourselves to the max during training. And yet Lan continues to get cheap tricks allowing him to win! First were his style changes. To overcome those, we had to train more and more. Eventually, we obtained the Muramasa Style. But after that, style changes became obsolete and Lan gained the power of Soul Unisons/Crosses. And if those weren't cheap enough, he got Beast Out! And now, just before the biggest tournament of the decade, the one we've been training for months for, he gains these new Beast Outs that seem even stronger than the originals!"

"Well," started Protoman, "It's just a little bad luck…"

"No, Protoman. Apparently, it's destiny. I've created a new training program. Our very last chance to defeat Lan. We'll begin with it as soon as we get back. Then we'll see whose "fire shines brighter". Assuming he isn't randomly given another transformation by his dad in order to make some dramatic irony.

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"Oh, yeah," remembered Dr. Hikari. "I forgot."

"What is it, dad?" his son asked.

"I have a new über-strong transformation for you!" Dr. Hikari fiddled around with Lan's PET for a few minutes, downloading a program from his flash drive. "I'll explain what it does before the tournament. Now shoo! Get out of my lab!"

Lan and his friends took a train back to ACDC. Lan tried to shepherd Maylu and himself into a separate car, but Geo, Pat and Sonia butted in as well. Sighing, he sank into his chair. He would never get a chance at this rate.

"So," he said, struggling to make conversation, "What do you think happened to Chaud back there?" Maylu laughed.

"Who knows with that guy? All I know is, he went back home for an extra-strenuous training session."

"How do you know that?" Lan asked incredulously. Maylu giggled.

"Because that's what he always does!"

Soon, they were at the station. Pat said goodbye to the others and walked over to Chaud's house. A sign on the door said: "Pat, if you are reading this, stay out of my house." Pat was affronted. There was no way he was staying outside, especially when he had a key to the house! He slotted the key in, turned it…

And jumped back from the lasers shooting at him. Another sign appeared on the door.

"No, seriously."

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"Are you ready, Protoman?" asked Chaud, preparing himself.

"Whenever you are, sir." Chaud put on a helmet and turned a key in his new machine.

"Then let's try this. Power-on: Virtual Synchro machine." The virtual reality helmet powered up, transferring Chaud's consciousness into the computer. When Chaud opened his eyes, he was in a suit of red armor, with a violet sword replacing his right hand. His first opponent appeared in front of him. It was Freezeman. He shot shards of ice towards Chaud, but he was ready. He caught the ice on his shield, and at the same time fired a ZapRing3 out of his left hand. Even before Freezeman was paralyzed, Chaud was flying towards him, Assassin Sword in hand. The sword hit at the same time as the shield's shockwave, and Freezeman fell to the ground. Chaud finished it off with a LifeSword3 Program Advance. His next opponent, Flameman, appeared. Chaud dashed in and hit him with an Aquasword. After that, he Areagrabbed out of the way from his adversary's retaliatory attack. Before Flameman had a chance to react, Chaud had already turned around and dashed in with an EvilCut Program Advance. He flinched away and Chaud finished him off with an ElecPulse3.

He continued to battle, on and on. Even against multiple opponents, his skill could not be challenged. Eventually, he had a hundred wins straight. And he hadn't taken a single point of damage. Chaud logged out of the machine.

"Well, it works, Protoman. Our new Virtual Reality NaviSynch system (Patent numbers 215049273-215049280, © 21xx BlazeCorps, All Rights Reserved) allows us to merge our consciousnesses into one. It was as if we were unstoppable!"

"Yes, sir," replied Protoman. "The scanners have shown that our power level has increased by 1000. We should be able to easily win this tournament.

"You hear that, Lan Hikari?" Chaud smirked. "We'll let you go this time. But come the finals of the tournament, we'll finally show who's the best Netbattler on Earth."

Hmm… I'm not really sure about this chapter. Something seems off. Oh well, we're almost into the tournament, and then things will start heating up. Incidentally, why does it seem that everyone uses a tournament in they're stories? Capcom hasn't left us with very many good plot drivers… It seems half of the games are about tournaments! (3, 4, 4.5, maybe another one that I forgot)

Well, yeah. Sorry again that this was so late. And please, PLEASE review!

Please?


	6. Predictions and Prelims

.

Hey! I'm _very _sorry that this took so long. Studying for finals / working on fanfics. :P But now that finals are over, I should be able to write a lot faster. I'd like to thank the two people have favorited my story, Loverly Light and Insense, as well as the three other people who put me on Story Alert: Goten is awesome, MegamanV2, and Writer6886. Yes, I finally found the page which shows who put your story on Story Alert. : P

Well, enough of that. On with the story!

**Chapter XI: Predictions and Prelims**

Lan was bored. Bored out of his skull. He was lying on his couch, listening to the i-Pod he got for his birthday. Unfortunately, since Dex had bought it for him, the playlist wasn't anything that he liked. After listening to the Blarney and Pals theme song for the thousandth time, he shut off the i-Pod in disgust and turned on the TV. Soon, he turned that off as well.

"Ten million channels," he muttered in disbelief, "and still nothing to watch." It was mind-numbing. There was no one around. Yai was extravagantly shopping in Europe, Dex was fishing with his dad, Maylu was at her cousin's house, and Chaud, of course, was training. Everyone except him had plans. To make it worse, those idiots from Netopia were all crowded in his living room, gorging on his food, trashing up the house, and making _way_ too much noise. He supposed that he only had one choice. He left his PET on his bed, opened the balcony door, and crept out of his room.

He jumped onto the large tree that was in his backyard, next to the balcony, and hugged the trunk tightly. He then began to shimmy his way up the tree until he reached the branches. He continued climbing up the tree until he reached a point pretty close to the top. As he settled into the spot he had made for himself, years ago, he instantly felt much better. Ever since he had been old enough to climb trees, he had climbed up here whenever life felt hectic or he just needed a break. Lately, he reflected, he was climbing up here more and more. No matter how many times he did, however, he always felt exhilarated. There was just something about being so high up. He could see the whole town from up here. Over there was the school, and there was the park, and Higsby's was right there. He picked out the houses of everyone he knew, and then the houses of people he didn't know. The sun was setting by this point, and he had to look down as it shined into his eyes. As he looked down, the only house he hadn't pointed out caught his eye. Maylu's. He sighed. Fate must be conspiring against him. First, years ago, there was that disaster at Castillo, which was so terrible that it seemed he had lived through it 3+ times, which was kind of annoying. After that, he never really got any other chances, because he moved to Cyber City for the rest of the year, and was a bit separated from his friends when he came back. There _was_ the incident at the science fair in eighth grade… Lan shuddered at the very memory of it. He had sworn to never speak about it again, and he sure didn't want to break that promise now. Grimacing, he thought back over the past three weeks, with his birthday, Sean's revelation, the fire, and all the other times he had tried. No matter what he did, it didn't ever work. He wished he could have just one moment, alone, without any of the others butting in…

He heard the sound of a car revving and jumped. As if he had some sort of magic power, Maylu had returned home at that very minute! His heart raced. With none of the others here, and all those Netopian idiots at his house, he could finally get a chance.

Before he climbed down, he wished for 1,000,000 just to make sure he _didn't_ have magic power.

He didn't.

He climbed down the tree quick as a squirrel, bruising himself badly in his haste to return to the ground, and breathlessly knocked on the door of Maylu's house. He steeled himself to immediately ask her, so that there would be no time for an interruption. The door swung open, and he took a deep breath.

"Maylu, would you-

…

"DEX, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

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He had gone inside the house, and saw that everyone was there. Chaud looked grave.

"Where were you, you idiot? I e-mailed you an hour ago! Yai flew back here immediately, and we picked up Maylu and Dex, but we've been driving all around town trying to find you!" Lan sweatdropped as he remembered how he had left the PET in his room.

"I was… I couldn't check my e-mail." he replied sheepishly. Chaud sighed.

"Of course. We thought something had happened to you, and the only problem is the fact that you're too lazy to reply to your e-mail. We were sure that you would break the sound barrier once you saw what was happening, but you're just lounging around, and-"

"Great," Lan interrupted. "Can you just tell me what's happening already?" Chaud grumbled with disdain.

"Fine. If you had paid attention, it turns out that the prelims were too easy. And before you stupidly ask, 'What prelims?', I'll answer you." (Of course, Lan _had_, in fact, been about to ask that very question.) "The ones for the tournament that your father has so conveniently got us into. Anyway, they were so easy, that _every single idiot_ who signed up got in. Yeah. Anyway, they need to hold a final elimination round to cut the number from the current ten thousand to a nice round 128. Basically, it's going to be a deathmatch. They'll throw us all into a computer, and the last 128 alive will go onto the finals." Lan shuddered.

"Sounds sick. ……And completely awesome!" Chaud frowned.

"The problem is, thanks to you, we only have five minutes to get there, and it's all the way downtown!" At this, a huge bang rang out, and Lan seemed to blur and disappear. Chaud blinked. "What the hell was tha-" Before he could finish, another bang exploded, and Lan blurred back into existence, PET in hand.

"You know, when I said that thing about the sound barrier, I didn't mean it literally-" Before he could finish, there was another bang, and they were all rushing at Mach 5 towards the city.

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Chaud was nearly having a seizure by the time they reached the site of the prelims.

"Lan, what the _hell_ did you just do?" Lan grinned maniacally.

** "Netbattling is my only reason for living!" **he crowed to the rooftops.

…sweatdrop…

"…I really don't think you should be yelling that so loud…" Chaud said ironically.

"Perhaps not." Lan agreed. They ran inside the building and quickly registered to be in the match.

"Everyone else is already in the waiting room," the receptionist said with a smile that seemed to be stuck on her face. "You'd better hurry up and get in there!" There was another bang, and they were already in.

As they walked in to the waiting room, Lan groaned. "Not you guys!" Somehow, they had gotten out of his living room and were now standing in front of him.

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Geo frowned. _Why do they hate us so much?_ he wondered to himself. _It's not as if we've done anything bad…_ Luna stamped her foot on the ground.

"Yes, 'us guys'! We have just as much a right to be in this tournament as you do! Stop hogging the whole story to yourselves!" Chaud sighed.

"Forget it. Let's scope out the competition." They saw many people they knew, including Higsby and Numberman, Sal and Woodman, Dusk and Shadowman, Raoul and Thunderman, Tora and Kingman, and, of course, Mr. Famous. Chaud knew all of these people, and he was pretty sure he could beat all of them, with the possible exception of Famous. Realizing that he could beat everyone that he knew, he stopped looking for his acquaintances and decided to scout out all of the people that he _didn't_ know. Most of them looked like they wouldn't be any trouble at all. However, he saw many shady looking people. Assumedly, they were Undernet types trying to get something in on the tournament. If they all ganged up, there might be a problem. He spotted someone, however, who seemed very confident in himself. He was wearing a strange, bright costume that seemed to shimmer and change colors when you changed the angle you were looking at it. It was fairly blinding, actually. He was chatting with Lan and Dex.

_ Leave it to those amateurs to start getting friendly with the enemy,_ he thought, rolling his eyes. _I'll have to keep an eye out for that one._ He looked around again, and saw a huge, hulking looking man push his way through the crowd as if they were paper. _And that one, too._

He looked around for a little longer, and spotted another weird contestant: A person crouched in the corner, under a black cloak. He couldn't see who was under it, whether they were male or female, how old they were, nothing. That probably meant trouble. After the last "mystery Netbattler", Q, he wasn't very likely to trust this guy. He glared at the person under the black cloak, but he/she didn't seem to respond. As he turned around, the person in the cloak looked out with robotic, red eyes.

"_**Target Sighted**__._"

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He was pretty sure that he had located all of the biggest threats, so he turned back and began to walk towards the entrance to the computer room.

Then he stopped short. And gasped. There was a girl walking towards the computer as well. She was wearing a dress so pink that it nearly blinded him, and a headband of the same color crowned her golden hair. She had pulled it back into a ponytail, which reached down past her shoulders. Amazingly, many people were pulling aside reverently and letting her pass by. He went up to a man who had just jumped out of the way and asked him who the girl was, and why he had gotten out of the way. He stared at Chaud as if he were crazy.

"You've never heard of her? She's famous where I come from! She's _never lost before_!" Chaud rolled his eyes.

"I swear, if you tell me that's because she's never been in a Netbattle before, then I'll feed you to a crocodile." The man was affronted.

"Who do you think I am, Godot? She's been in ten tournaments and won all of them! No one in our country has yet managed to defeat her! She's incredible!" Chaud walked away, troubled. He wondered whether or not the girl would pose much trouble to him. Pondering this, he walked through the door, ready to jack in and own everyone he could. When he walked in, however, he saw a strange kid, about Lan's age, messing with the controls of the computer. When he yelled at the kid to get away from there, he looked up and grinned.

"Ah, if it isn't the famous Chaud Blaze. I'm glad you're here on time. If you and your friends hadn't come, the whole thing would have crashed. I guess the Prophecy really isn't ever wrong." Chaud's eyes widened, remembering Mr. Hikari's words the previous week, and how much he had been insulted.

"What do you mean?" he asked roughly, grabbing the kid by the shirt. "What do you know about that Prophecy thing?" The kid shook his head and grinned again.

"Now, now, Chaud. I might have told you if you weren't being so rude. Here's a life lesson for you. Never manhandle someone you want to cooperate with you." Chaud growled.

"And here's one for you. Never mouth off to someone stronger than you who is already pissed off." The kid smiled sarcastically and pressed a button on the PDA he was carrying. Instantly, Chaud was forced to let go of him as a thousand volts coursed through his body, knocking him painfully to the ground. Groaning, he pulled himself back up, but the kid was nowhere to be seen. A voice came over the loudspeaker, telling everyone to jack into the computer. Muttering a few curses under his breath, he walked over to the machine and jacked in. Almost a million voices cried out at the same time:

"JACK IN! EXECUTE!"

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A huge wasteland lay before the Netnavis. It looked as if it was stolen straight out of Halo. Protoman reviewed the plan in his head before the battle started. He was to merge consciousnesses with Chaud again, and rush through the mass of Netnavis, targeting all of those that they decided unworthy to enter the finals. Chaud wanted as glorious of a victory as possible, and that meant going up against the strongest candidates possible. He activated the VR link a few seconds before the man called "GO!".

And as soon as that happened, utter chaos raged through the Net. There were obvious groups. The large, strong navis simply pummeled into the fray without any thought of tactics, including Gutsman and Taurus. Meanwhile, smaller, more agile navis mostly stayed out of the fight and allowed the other navis to beat each other up, while shooting small attacks at the others. Just as Chaud had predicted, a huge amount of HeelNavis had joined together and were massively assaulting the rest. In fact, they seemed to be targeting Megaman, in particular.

"Guys!" he yelled, in an attempt to be heard over the chaos. "I need help, over here!" Despite all of the attacks he tried, he was being pushed back by the huge army, and was nearly surrounded. Dex, seeing Lan's predicament, downloaded a Battlechip he had customized special for the tournament.

"DrillPunch! Battlechip in, download!" Upon receiving the chip, Gutsman pounded his two fists together, which conjoined into a huge fist. He flew through the crowd, knocking aside everyone in his way. He ended up right next to Megaman, and began helping to push back the tide of navis. However, by now, several other, more powerful navis, had joined up with the HeelNavis in an attempt to overwhelm Megaman and take him out of the tournament.

"Guts!" groaned Gutsman. "They must really be scared of you to all join up like this!" Megaman was too busy fighting to respond. They needed some major help, and they needed it quick. Suddenly, he had an idea.

"Guard! DashAttack! Battlechips in!" Dex, getting the plan, loaded three Battlechips in as well. Gutsman picked up Megaman and prepared to hurl him.

"Program Advance: GutsShoot!" Megaman flew forward, rapidly firing his buster, while Gutsman raised his arms for a second attack. "Program Advance: Zeta-Impact!" He fired a raging storm of fists out at the army. Although it seemed to work at first, it turned out that it wasn't as good of a plan as he thought it was. Having been shot into the middle of the brawl, Megaman was now completely surrounded. Chaos swirled around him as explosions blasted everywhere. At this point, nearly all of the navis had ganged up on him. A few of his friends who had noticed were attempting to assist him, but most were either involved in their own fights, or were simply oblivious to the mass of navis assaulting him. Even Protoman didn't seem to care, and was still rushing through like a hurricane, obliterating anyone who got too near his sword. Anyone within a hundred feet of him fled as fast as their feet could carry them. Megaman wished that he would come towards the mob, but he couldn't count on that happening. In only a couple more seconds, he would be overwhelmed.

Or would he?

"Megaman!" cried Lan. "Hang on! Deus ex Machina to the rescue!" Lan pressed the Beast Out button that had conveniently just appeared on his PET screen. Megaman's head was thrown back as the incomparable power coursed through his body. However, this wasn't the same Beast as when he fought Freezeman. This transformation felt completely different. Ice coursed through his veins as he turned an even deeper blue, and fin-like appendages grew all over him. His helmet turned distinctly aquatic as the transformation finished.

"_**Beast Out: Leviathan."**_

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At the other end of the arena, Chaud paused in his rage of destruction and began to beat his head against the wall.

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Beast-Megaman was on the warpath, and was actually winning single-handedly. An Arrows Program Advance, boosted considerably by the power of the Beast Out, thinned their ranks considerably. After that, being mostly out of chips, Beast-Megaman was forced to fight with his buster only. However, with the buster shooting a close-range freezing spray, it wasn't too bad. But then, a navi they knew as, "Omegaman", came.

** "THIS IS MY FIGHT!"** roared Beast-Megaman. **"STAY OUT!" **Lan looked shocked.

"Megaman, we need all the help we can get! Don't pick a fight with someone who's trying to help you. Geo was holding back after the roar, which had echoed through the whole computer. "Geo, please! Get in and help!" Geo still looked dubious.

"What 'ya say, kid?" asked Omega, "Should we help them?" Geo sighed.

"Why not?" He jumped into the battle, loosing a fully charged buster shot, which cut through a navi instantly. Another roar rang out, however, and Beast-Megaman began shooting at them!

"Megaman!" shouted Lan. "What the hell are you doing?" Megaman ignored him, and continued shooting at Geo. Geo was slammed back against the pillar.

_ What to do?_ he thought to himself, _fight back, risking everyone hating me, or stay here and hope to survive?_

Another blast answered that question immediately. He pulled out a huge hammer and raised it to the sky.

"STAR KNIGHT: VÖNDR! TRANSFORM!" Geo grew to twice his size, with massive, blood-red armor covering every inch of his body, and a huge skull-shaped helmet on his head. He carried a giant mace with a skull on top of it, which he swung directly into Megaman's icon. The Beast's power left him immediately, and he collapsed to the ground.

Which, of course, set every single navi on top of him at once.

Geo smashed with his mace and burned with his cannon, but it seemed Megaman had no chance at all. Then, two voices simultaneously rang out, with the exact same words in mind.

"Fireblade. Aquablade. Elecblade. Program Advance: Lifesword3!"

Two navis rushed in at the same time, eradicating the entire army with their deadly blades. One was a very familiar face, Protoman, as usual. Chaud was determined that he would fight Lan in the finals of the tournament, allowing him to finally prove his worth to the entire world on prime-time television. However, both the identity and the motives of the second navi were not so clear. He had dull red and green armor, with a human build and face. Strangely, he seemed to be carrying his sword in his hands instead of having it on his arm. Quickly, they eliminated the remainder of the mob, and turned towards each other.

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Chaud frowned. Obviously, this navi was skilled. He would rather have him to enhance the glory of the tournament than have to take him down now. He did a quick headcount. Exactly 129 navis remained. All of them were staring at the two of them in the middle. He sighed, and took up his sword.

However, a shining, angelic navi, who obviously didn't care about the face-off, took advantage of the moment to blast a navi with a huge light stream, logging him out instantly.

"All right," Chaud called up. "There are 128 navis left, you can end this now." There seemed to be some confusion, though, as the man reported that there were still 129 navis left.

They all began looking around to try and find the 129th navi, who, no doubt, had dishonorably hidden the entire time. None of them felt that someone like that should be allowed into the tournament. While Chaud was looking into a patch of tall grass, a flash of movement caught his eye. A black figure emerged from the shadow of a pillar and stabbed a sword into an unfortunate navi's back.

"That's a hundred-twenty-eight," he said in a rasping voice. The entire group was jacked out automatically.

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The sixty-four winners went into another room, where they were given official passes to the tournament, along with a few other perks. Chaud looked around, scouting his competition. Geo, Luna, Sonia, Bud, and Pat had all gotten through, which amazed Chaud, as they had never seemed very good to him. Claud and Kenta, however, had been deleted early on in the mêlée. He, Lan, Maylu, and Yai had gotten through, and so, miraculously, had Dex. Tory seemed to have disappeared permanently, as if the author needed to cut down on space so he didn't have to deal with so many main characters at once. Among the others, he spotted Tora, Famous, Dusk, and many other familiar faces. He also saw, almost as if he had predicted it, the guy with the flashing coat; the massive, hulking man; the strange person in the cloak; and, of course, the girl. He could tell that this would be a battle to end all battles.

And he would win it. To reclaim his honor, and, ultimately, to show whoever made that Prophecy thing that he was no pushover.

He would win, or die trying.

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Well, I don't have much to say, other than an apology for the long wait and another plead for reviews. Seriously! You can spare a few seconds of your life to let a poor, review-starved author know what you think of his story! Please? PLEASE?

…Ahem. Well, starting next chapter, we're going to begin to get into the tournament. With both new friends and new enemies, both familiar stories and shocking twists, the tournament will destroy all assumptions you had about this story! Will our heroes be able to leave the tournament alive? Can Chaud overcome the menace of Deus ex Machina? Will I get more fans? Find out next time, on, Time Stops for No Man!

(Theme music plays)

PS: This thing is really pissing me off. It keeps messing up the format of everything I put in here. No matter what I do, I can't get it to accept indents or extra lines or anything. Does anyone know how to make this neater? I'm seriously ticked off.


	7. The Competition Begins

Gah! I'm really sorry it's taken me so long to write this. I've had a _lot_ of things come up. I hope I still have fans after this… D:

Anyways, without further ado, chapter seven.

**EDIT**: It took even _longer_ than I expected. V.V

Sorry about this, everyone! Especially Loverly Light, who isn't even here to read it. : P

* * *

**Chapter VII: The Competition Begins**

* * *

Chaud was mad. And not just ordinary, run-of-the-mill mad, but absolutely _livid_. It had seemed he found finally someone who could not only match, but outwit him.

It had all started back at the prelims. That one navi… The one that had hidden from view for the whole battle until the end. Chaud had used his considerable influence to view the tapes of the prelims prior to them being cut for TV. He saw, at the very beginning, that navi simply disappeared. He watched that spot the entire battle, but he never reappeared until the end.

This should have been impossible. There was only one way that a navi could disappear for an entire battle.

And that was cheating. Or, more precisely, hacking. Someone must have come on the set beforehand, hacked into the computers, and made a "safe spot", a photon-based anomaly which would make it impossible to see anyone hiding there. And when he came to that conclusion, he instantly thought of the guy who had gotten away from him prior to the prelims (and, in the process, heavily bruising both Chaud's body _and_ his self-esteem). Thankfully, he had the foresight (and the paranoia) to pull a government satellite out of orbit in order to track his movements, 24/7, just in case someone ever kidnapped him or something. This way, he could tell the identity of his unknown assailant, easily.

So, that night, after reminding Protoman that "When you're rich, you can never be too paranoid", he logged on to the internet.

* * *

_**Flashback**_

_**Because present tense is so much easier to write than past**_

* * *

"Protoman, upload the images from the satellite into the computer," Chaud commanded. "And hurry up with it."

"Yes, sir," Protoman replied. "I have isolated the clearest shot we managed to get of the culprit, and photoshopped out the background to reduce false positives. GoogolPlex Image-Searching has been prepared with appropriate filter settings."

"Good. Start the search."

The picture beamed itself to the server of the world's biggest search engine, GoogolPlex, which had replaced Google fifty years ago. While, in olden times, there were multiple search engines, the government had consolidated every search engine into this one huge one. There wasn't a single website on the main internet that wasn't hooked up to GoogolPlex, except for private ones that had requested to be removed. The engine was equipped with semantic logic, allowing it to actually answer questions instead of simply searching for keywords. It also allowed a user to search images, where it would find any other images that looked similar.

So, Chaud had copied in the image, typed the question "Who is this person?", and simply waited for the results to come up. And when they did, Chaud was shocked.

_"No standard web pages answering your search terms were found. Your search did not match any documents. Try rewording your question and make another search." _

That was impossible. Maybe a hundred years ago or so, you could get away with hiding yourself, but nowadays, it was impossible. He should have found school pictures, a birth certificate, work documents, anything! It was as if this kid never existed.

…

Hang on…

Chaud realized something important. If this had been a _normal_ search, there should have been hundreds of false positives. The image searching device wasn't very good, and there were many people who looked similar in the world. However, if there weren't _any_ results, there was only one possible explanation: The code of GoogolPlex had been hacked and rewritten, to automatically intercept any searches for this particular person, and instruct the program to return an empty search. And if this had happened, there was only one possible party responsible.

The Undernet.

In keeping with their evil sense of humor, the Underdwellers had created a parody of the Witness Protection Act, known as the "Witness Prevention Act". One of the things this program promised was to completely erase any possible means of the person being tracked. They not only blocked the searching, but they also went to every site that came up in the search, and erased not only the offending photo, but any references to the person's existence. And that was only the beginning. They tracked down real-life proof, destroying it, even going as far to erase a name scratched into a second-grade school desk.

Only the most important people in the Undernet were given this protection. People who they really couldn't afford to lose. Whoever this guy was, he was obviously a top hacker. It really surprised Chaud. He couldn't be more than sixteen or seventeen, yet he was obviously important enough for the high-ups in the Under to erase his identity completely.

There was only one thing to do at this point: Go straight to the source.

Chaud logged back on to his computer and headed to the Undernet.

* * *

There was only one possible way that Chaud was going to find out who this kid was: The Undernet's Database. The Database had more illegal things than anyone could read through in a lifetime, from the exact details of every secret mission carried out by every government in the world, straight down to the color of the underwear worn by the president. And everything in between.

You had to have an Undernet account to use Elgoog, the Under-search engine that connected to the Database. The officials had acquired one with great difficulty, and even now, they rarely used it, because if they were detected, the Underdwellers would not appreciate their entrance, and would likely remove them. Forcibly. Chaud would probably get into a lot of trouble for using it without filing a request first, but it was urgent, so he ploughed ahead and logged in.

He repeated the exact same thing, copying in the picture and pressing enter.

What happened next shocked him even more than the first time.

* * *

In a couple seconds, all hell broke loose on his computer. High-pitched alarms blared out of the speakers, the screen started flashing red, his internet browser crashed instantly and he was thrown off.

He had no time to think about what was happening. By now, the account he had been using had probably been taken over, been extracted for every IP address that had used it, and permanently deleted. He couldn't do anything about it. All he could do was attempt to save his computer from being wiped.

Quickly, he pressed a special button on the computer, made especially for emergency situations such as this, where speed and accuracy were needed. Within milliseconds, his keyboard had been remapped to access protective features with maximal convenience and efficiency. He slid his fingers across the keyboard, opening a diagnostic function. He groaned with disbelief. He had six firewalls, and they were all crumpling like paper. In only a couple more seconds, all six would be dead and unresponsive.

His fingers flying across the keyboard, he diverted emergency power to the firewall, booted up every antivirus program he had, and opened the malware detection menu. There were no viruses or spyware in the computer, Chaud had the best antivirus software in existence, and he did regular checks. The only thing that came up on the screen was an .exe file.

"Vengeance.exe has been detected on your computer. Threat level- Instant Death. Location- C Drive." Chaud, worried about that, glanced back at the diagnostic monitor, and swore. All six firewalls were dead, and according to the counter, had been dead for almost a minute now. Just then, there was an urgent beep from the anti-malware software.

"Three hundred more viruses have been detected on your computer, ranging from threat levels of very high to critical. A complete purge is likely needed." Chaud glanced down the list. Whoever had written this Vengeance.exe, he obviously meant business. It had located each of his antivirus programs, distracted them with a couple decoys each, and then injected a deadly virus into the antivirus programs themselves. They were probably failing even now. There was also an Extractor placed into the My Computer section, which was copying every file in it, compacting them into a Zip file, and deleting the original.

No matter what Chaud did, the viruses were one step ahead of him. He even tried hard-resetting, but the computer wouldn't turn off. Eventually, he just had to watch as the last few files were deleted from his computer, and it was left a complete blank. There was a little cleanup, where the viruses either deleted themselves or, for the more complicated viruses, transferred themselves back inside Vengeance.exe. Eventually, after Vengeance.exe withdrew from Chaud's computer, there was only one file remaining in the entire computer.

_"You do __**not**__ want to mess with me. Never search for me again. You cannot trace me, you cannot find me. Give it up._

_Sincerely,_

_Tech_

* * *

_**End Flashback**_

* * *

Chaud was reminded of that letter as his train rattled down the tracks, nearing his destination at the NBA (NetBattle Association) headquarters, where all of the contestants were supposed to go.

Chaud was three hours early. He would have been earlier, but he had forgotten to turn his lights of at home and had to go back.

* * *

Three hours later, the _normal_ contestants began arriving. Lan and Co. came on the train together. When they came in, flashing their tickets, they saw Chaud going through his six thousandth repetition.

"You know," whispered Maylu, "I almost feel sorry for him. He's just _so_ determined to win this, but there just isn't any chance for him. Poor guy. All that training wasted."

A loud voice came over the speaker just as the last couple contestants came filing in.

"ATTENTION NETBATTLERS! Pay attention, because I'm only going to say this once.

"In only a few short minutes, you will all begin the most exciting time of your lives. This is the biggest tournament ever held, in honor of the upcoming two hundredth anniversary of the Internet. The footage of this tournament will be shown live in every city, in every nation, of the entire world. Twenty million viewers will be glued to the screen, watching your every move. I hope you know enough to not do anything stupid with the entire world watching you."

The studio went live at that very moment, having already made an introductory speech.

"We have divided you up into four groups of thirty-two players each. Each of the four groups will be shipped off to a different, exotic location around the globe. Group A will be going to Mount Ignis, the biggest and hottest active volcano in the world, where they will be battling on levitating platforms, only a few feet above the molten magma!"

The crowd began cheering, and several of the netbattlers turned white.

"Group B," the announcer continued, "will be traveling to the glaciers of the Antarctic, where they will duke it out in the frigid cold, blizzarding weather!"

More cheering, more frightened Netbattlers.

"Group C will travel into the depths of the Earth! Five miles down into a pitch-black, confined cave, filled with all sorts of unsavory creatures!"

There were quite a few who began to feel uneasy about this whole thing.

"And finally, the _piece de resistance_, Group D. Group D…

Will be suspended in midair for their battle. _Five thousand feet above sea level._

Now, stay tuned as we distribute the groups!

-After this commercial break!"

* * *

As the loudspeaker quieted down, Lan turned to his friends.

"Sounds pretty hardcore, doesn't it?" Maylu nodded in agreement, Yai muttered "Yeah," and Dex…

"Where _is_ Dex?" After a couple seconds of searching, Yai laughed and pointed.

"_There_ he is! The big baby!" Dex was whimpering under a trash can.

"L-L-Lan, I'm not sure if I can go through with this…" he muttered. Lan rolled his eyes.

"Dex, this is the chance of a lifetime! You're competing against the top hundred-twenty-eight battlers in the nation," _although I really don't know how you did it…_ "For a chance at becoming the greatest batter in the nation!" _Although you really have no chance of passing the first round…_ Dex slowly stopped sniffling.

"You're right, Lan. I can't let this chance go by me just because I'm afraid of volcanoes, hypothermia, dark enclosed spaces, _and_ heights!" Lan grinned.

"That's the spirit! And, besides, you only have to go through _one_ of them! Dex groaned again, but came out from under the trash can.

* * *

_**Meanwhile, in the Director's Office**_

* * *

The director had finished typing in all of the names into a random pairing generator. Of course, it wasn't _really_ random, because there was someone on the other end feeding a pre-made bracket into it. The director, of course, had no idea this was happening, no idea that someone was attempting to influence the outcome of the tournament. No idea exactly what was about to happen that would undoubtedly keep everyone in the world glued to their screens.

"I will now announce the groups!"

Lan and the others listened with bated breath as he announced the group names. Maylu, Pat, and Luna ended up in Group A, along with others, some that they knew, others that they didn't. Group B took Dex and Sonia, as well as others, notably Mr. Famous. Yai and Bud got stuck in Group C, as well as Tora.

"Well, Lan," smirked Chaud. "I guess that leaves me with you." Sure enough, he announced the pairings, and told the members of Group D to get into an awaiting plane.

"ATTENTION NETBATTLERS!" the man yelled loudly, "My hair is ordering you to fasten your seatbelts and prepare for a three-hour ride!" Lan turned to Chaud.

"Did you ever have the feeling that the author just accidentally made a tribute to a hilarious online video series and decided to roll with it just for kicks?"

"What the _hell_ are you talking about?"

* * *

Ten minutes later, they had taken off and had been allowed to move about the cabin. Chaud decided to scout out his opponents and find out who was in Group D with him. There was that bumbling Netopian, Geo Solar or whatever. There was, of course, Lan. He saw Laika, (or is it Raika? I can never remember… V.V) the operator of Searchman. _Well, I know __**he'll **__at least put up a fight. _He recognized few others, and turned away…

And then stopped. It was that strange girl again, the one he had seen at the prelims!_ Hmm… Perhaps I'll finally figure out who this girl is…_

Now that he realized it, the boy sitting in front of him, with Lan, was that kid with the flashy jacket. _Ouch, I can even see it through the seat… Put a black-out on that thing…_

_This might be a better fight than I expected… _Chaud thought as he grinned to himself. _But __**I'm**__ the one who will come out on top. _

* * *

The fourth group got out at their destination… Thousands of feet in the air, they stayed far away from the edges of the platforms as they made their way towards the main building. As they carefully climbed into the building, the stage was set. The prophecy, although it was nearly a hundred years old, was coming to its frutition at last. By the time this tournament was over, the world would be tasting the wrath of one of the most powerful beings in the world. Locked up for a hundred years, he would finally be free...

Free to take his revenge upon mankind and all of its creations.

* * *

Blech... I don't write for almost two months, and then I come out with this tiny little chapter? Pathetic! I've got to release the next chapter before the month is over, or else my whole confidence as a writer will be shot!

No time to beg for reviews, I've got to start working on chapter eight! Bye, guys!

...And, yes, "Elgoog" is Google backwards.


End file.
